Press release

Kolakovic says game with Japan was must win for Serbia

Serbia poses at the end of the match with Japan together with Jovana Brakocevic, MVP of the last European Championship in Belgrade

Serbia coach Igor Kolakovic: "We played a very tough game against Japan. It is always tough against them. This was an important game for us. It was important for the confidence of our young players who finished the game. We probably missed our opportunity for London by losing the first three games, but we will try our best in the rest of this tournament".

Serbia captain Ivan Miljkovic: "I can only be satisfied with the victory today. All the other things are relative. We changed our mentality to the winning mentality when we had to".

Serbia player Dragan Stankovic: "This was our last chance to get back in the tournament. We needed it after the three losses. We stopped playing today after the first two sets. It was difficult to win the fifth set. We changed some players and had some new spirit".

Japan coach Tatsuya Ueta: "We were very bad in the beginning tonight. The mood was not good. Our blocking was not good and we had a problem with our transition attack".

Japan captain Daisuke Usami: "The key was the first and second sets. We did well in the third and fourth sets. We have to play like that all the way. We have to fix this problem and play better tomorrow".

Japan player Yusuke Ishijima: "We fought in a united spirit in the third and fourth sets. If we can fight like that we can try and win. Our coach told us if we showed our spirit on the court, the crowd would respond".